Metal Gear Solid 5's bonkers birthday surprise

THERE MAY BE SPOILERS AHEAD.

Metal Gear Solid 5 has a birthday surprise for players and protagonist Snake.

The game asks players to set their birthday - and now we know why.

As seen on Reddit, if you play the game on your birthday, Ocelot calls Snake back to Mother Base to deal with an apparent emergency.

Except it's not an emergency. It's a surprise birthday party!

Ocelot and his balaclava-wearing cohorts wheel out a birthday cake and sing happy birthday, but not the Happy Birthday song, which would have cost Hideo Kojima's paymasters at Konami double what Kiefer Sutherland charged for his dozen or so lines of dialogue. Then the tease of a celebratory cigar. But no! Not so fast, Snake!

It's all a bit weird. But then, that's Kojima's way, right?

In an additional weird twist, it turns out that if you have a 100 per cent bonding rating with Quiet, you get an extra birthday surprise - as you can see in this video from friend of Eurogamer and occasional contributor Jon Hamblin, whose birthday is today. (Happy birthday Jon!) The extra scene is 2 minutes, 15 seconds in.

Are there any other birthday scenes out there with different characters? Let us know.

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